DWP claimants warned 'there will be sanctions' for refusing to work

The DWP could hand out penalties to benefit claimants who are able to work if they turn down job offers, a Cabinet minister has warned.

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said people have a "responsibility" to engage with training or employment programmes and will lose financial support if they decline to do so.

The Labour government is set to honour the £3 billion reduction in welfare expenditure over five years initially pledged by the previous Conservative government. Under the previous government, welfare eligibility would have been tightened so around 400,000 more people signed off long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.

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Speaking to broadcasters on Sunday, Ms Kendall stopped short of specifying Labour’s approach, saying only that the government would be launching its own measures.

On Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, the work and pensions secretary said: "If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits. The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those opportunities, which is what we will do."

Referring to young people specifically, she said the government would “transform” opportunities with a “youth guarantee” as part of the reforms, but they would in turn be “required to take them up”.

Ms Kendall also said she believed “many millions” of disabled people and those with long-term health problems want to work, and “we need to break down the barriers to that happening”.

Asked whether some 400,000 people would ultimately be denied their current benefits, she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme. But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”

Government data suggests the number of incapacity benefit claimants will rise from roughly 2.5 million in 2019 to an estimated 4.2 million by 2029, with over three million having filed claims last year.

On Tuesday next week, Ms Kendall will unveil plans to "get Britain working". Her forthcoming white paper is expected to include strategies such as assigning workplace coaches to mental health clinics and introducing a "youth guarantee" for those aged 18 to 21 to ensure they are employed or in education.

Addressing the rise in claims, the Cabinet minister highlighted that the causes are "complex" and said the UK is "an older and also sicker nation". She suggested some people have “self-diagnosed” mental health problems, but added there is a “genuine problem” with mental illness in the UK.

She said: "I think there are a combination of factors here. I do think we are seeing an increase in the number of people with mental health problems, both self-diagnosed – I think it’s good that stigma has been reduced – but also diagnosed by doctors. We’re also seeing more people in their 50s and above, often women, with bad knees, hips, joints. We’ve got a real problem with our health service."

When questioned about the possibility that "normal feelings" are being "over-medicalised", Ms Kendall told the BBC, "I genuinely believe there’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work. I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country."